‘Topping’ this workshop was news that our workshop leader, Damaris West, had just been Highly Commended in the 2025 Edward Thomas Fellowship Poetry Competition, for her entry Navigation. This set the tone for a fascinating evening.
Before ‘topping and tailing’ guidance, however, Damaris declared that writers should immerse themselves in poetry. An excellent – and free – idea is to sign up for a daily email poem, such as with Rattle.com, allowing the reader to appreciate the diversity of contemporary poetry.
Damaris guided us through six pieces demonstrating good practice in beginning, or topping, poems, in interesting ways: allowing titles to do the heavy lifting, providing essential information, perhaps in quite a prosaic way. This was clearly exemplified in Preparation for Residential Placement by Jennifer Franklin, an emotional piece belying its formal title.
Other poets used ‘bold, prescriptive’ beginnings, or lulled the reader into a false sense of security with a ‘pretty’ start, before subverting it at a later point, well demonstrated by Cindy Guentherman’s poem, About Those Apples.
One vital piece of advice, gleaned from Damaris’s own writing experience, is to ask yourself where your poem really begins. Editors often suggest ‘killing your darlings’ and cutting straight to the action.
Time for writing task one. Damaris provided the titles of three poems, already in existence, and challenged us to write our own piece to match. After listening to members’ efforts, we then heard the original poems. This approach revealed such a diversity of interpretation.
After tea, it was time for ‘tailing’. As the end of a poem lingers with readers, Damaris advised against drawing conclusions or providing answers; let readers make up their minds.
She shared techniques used in another eight poems: endings which included a ‘flashpoint’ or ‘ah ha’ moment, where a single word or phrase captured the essence of the piece, seemed to take the poet by surprise, or descended into unexpected triviality.
The example of the ‘flashpoint’ ending, generated in a collective gasp, as the list poem entitled What I’ve Killed, finished bleakly with, “a marriage.”
For task two, we took our earlier pieces and, focusing on the end, tried to create shock or surprise; so much to think about, and put into practice!
What a great evening, listening to Damaris’s beautiful readings, and insightful advice.
Thank you!
Carolyn O’Hara